A photo of a Muslim woman posing in front of a group of anti-Islam protesters is an example of the power of an image.

'Hate' is often one of the biggest emotions that drive people to target others on the basis of their nationality, religion, gender, class, caste or creed. And this hate is often on full display at "anti-Black" or "anti-Muslim" protests.

The only way to counter this hate is probably to counter it with love. Love, support and calling people when they blatant display such hate. That's exactly the tactic this Muslim woman adopted when she saw anti-Muslim protests happening in the US

A picture that has been going viral captures a young Muslim girl of colour, 'posing' in front of a group of anti-Islam protests. with over 1.2 lakh likes on the original post, the image is being seen as a powerful symbol of resistance.

A post shared by شيماء (@shaymaadarling) on Apr 21, 2019 at 10:25am PDT

In an interview toBuzzfeed, Shaymaa Ismaa’eel, 24, who is a behavioral therapist for children with autism from the DC area of America, shares how she went to the Islamic Circle of North America convention on 20th April and the first thing she saw there was a group of men with signs protesting Islam outside.

Wanting to combat their hatred with kindness, Ismaa’eel on the third day of the convention went and took the viral photo. She also posted the image on Twitter, and captioned it: 'On April 21st I smiled in the face of bigotry and walked away feeling the greatest form of accomplishment.'

On April 21st I smiled in the face of bigotry and walked away feeling the greatest form of accomplishment. pic.twitter.com/Dbrtk7MDAw

The image is powerful, it is an example of choosing love in the face of hate, in this case, quite literally. Ismaa'eel's photos also won her immense praise on Twitter, with people stating how it should go down in history books.